Can I shoot a light shot load?

[rednekhuntr]

I realise that the rifling will give me a terrible pattern, but I was wondering if it'd be safe to shoot a light load of shot out of my .50 Mountain rifle. I was thinking maybe 50grains of 3f goex, a wonderwad, 3/8 oz of lead 7 1/2 shot, and another wonderwad fer really close range cottontail. Would this at all mimic a .410? Would I be damaging my gun? I appreciate any advise you can give.

 

[roundball]

I realise that the rifling will give me a terrible pattern, but I was wondering if it'd be safe to shoot a light load of shot out of my .50 Mountain rifle. I was thinking maybe 50grains of 3f goex, a wonderwad, 3/8 oz of lead 7 1/2 shot, and another wonderwad fer really close range cottontail. Would this at all mimic a .410? Would I be damaging my gun? I appreciate any advise you can give.

Doubt it would do any damage at all.....and one thing you can try to get a slightly better pattern and keep the lead out of the grooves is to use a home made rolled paper shot cup.

You can use sheets of yellow post-it note paper rolled around a wooden dowel to get a cup that will just slide inside the diameter of your bore.

Fold in one end of the paper tube like you'd fold the end of a coin wrapper, and fill it with the amount of shot you want to use.

Mark the height of the shot, then pour the shot back out of the tube, trim off the excess paper tube above that mark, and use that first paper shot cup as a template to make a couple dozen more the same size.

Load powder;
Seat a couple of oxyoke over powder wads;
Gently slide a home made paper shot cup down bore;
Pour in your shot;
Seat an over shot card down on top of it;
Go shoot rabbits;

PS: Normally you'll get a tighter pattern with heavier shot like #6's...and they'll give better penetration than the lighter #7.5's

And I'd use 3/4oz, not 3/8oz.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Depends what you consider "damage" to the gun. You'll likely have a lot of lead fouling that will require special attention and solvents to remove, but it won't otherwise hurt the gun.

 

[rednekhuntr]

Thanks guys. The paper shot cup is a great idea. I can't make it to the range untill tuesday, but I'm looking forward to trying it out.

 

[Pittsburghunter]

I have never tried shot out of a rifle but why not short seat a sabot fill it with shot and put a wad over it ram this down the bore and be done with the deal? Wouldn't that be the same as a shot wad in a modern shot gun? I imagine the pattern would be real bad but at close range could make meat. Kinda like the shot shells they sell for pistols.

 

[pathfinderifh]

Shoot the most abrasive thing you can until all the un-neccasary grooves are gone that causeing your bad shot patterns! :rotf:. I do have one .50 cal Tennessee rifle and some time and tried the paper cups and gotta tell ya, not bad, good on a beer can to @ 15 yds. Still, find out whats causing the grooving in yer barrel
Pathfinder

 

[musketman]

I realise that the rifling will give me a terrible pattern, but I was wondering if it'd be safe to shoot a light load of shot out of my .50 Mountain rifle. I was thinking maybe 50grains of 3f goex, a wonderwad, 3/8 oz of lead 7 1/2 shot, and another wonderwad fer really close range cottontail. Would this at all mimic a .410? Would I be damaging my gun? I appreciate any advise you can give.

How about (dare I say) using an .50 caliber inline sabot as a shot cup?

It would still require the use of an over-shot card to prevent the shot from rolling out...

Note: the spin from the rifling will open the shot pattern really wide in short order, just to let you know... :winking:

 

[roundball]

Thinking about that after seeing Pitt's post, don't think a sabot would hold very much shot.

And, as they're designed to do, sabots would certainly engage the rifling solidily with their flared skirt...possibly a lot more so than a simple paper shot cup...dunno

 

[musketman]

Thinking about that after seeing Pitt's post, don't think a sabot would hold very much shot.

And, as they're designed to do, sabots would certainly engage the rifling solidily with their flared skirt...possibly a lot more so than a simple paper shot cup...dunno

For a "light" shot load woth low powder charges, the sabot would be like the T/C shot capsules for the Contender... (remember those)

 

[roundball]

Thinking about that after seeing Pitt's post, don't think a sabot would hold very much shot.

And, as they're designed to do, sabots would certainly engage the rifling solidily with their flared skirt...possibly a lot more so than a simple paper shot cup...dunno

For a "light" shot load woth low powder charges, the sabot would be like the T/C shot capsules for the Contender... (remember those)

Yes, you may have a good point there...like for shooting rats in a barn or something...

 

[revehuntsman]

I tried that once with my T/C Hawken .45. Loaded it with shot and drew down on a rabbit. saw stuff fly into the air all around the rabbit, but it ran off untouched. Reloaded and fired into a cactus patch. Amazed at how few holes there were in the leaves! The only thing I could figure was that the spin put on the shot laod by the rifling scattered it everywhere around the target.

 

[NoJacketRequired]

OK, this response will perhaps sound like it's going off-topic, but believe me, it's dead-on topic, just using different equipment.

My home defence gun is a Mossberg Model 500 12 guage shotgun. The barrel installed in it is their fully rifled slug barrel. The load I use for practice is cheap old 2 3/4" #7 1/2's, while my more serious load is Winchester frangible double ought buck.

Why use this for home defence? Because at 7 yards, the pattern is MAN-SIZE, and for some odd reason, vertically oriented. Picture a refrigerator box (my preferred target) with a nice big oval pattern on it, wide in the middle, narrower toward the top and bottom, extending almost from side-to-side on the box, and almost from top to bottom. That's at 7 YARDS! Buckshot patterns tighter than the 7 1/2s do, maybe by six inches in all dimensions.

Needless to say, I don't think you want to come wanderin' around my house with ill intent, unless of course you happen to be totin' something bigger than a 12-bore! :haha:

So, back to the question about shot in a rifled muzzleloader. My contention is that it will work, won't hurt anything, and could be lots of fun. But you'd better be very close to your rabbit target to have enough pattern density to make a humane kill.